Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Our Web Site is Moving (Slightly)

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:00:24 -0700

Hi everyone! We’ve had to move our website slightly due to an overload of pictures and material on this site, causing slow publishing times for us and slow load times for you. The new site should run much faster for everyone!

Please re-direct your bookmarks and browsers to our slightly modified website address which can be found HERE. The good news is you can still get to our new website by typing in http://www.marcandeliana.com

Also, RSS Subscribers will need to click the RSS button on our new home page to get continuous RSS feed service.

Thanks for bearing with us as we make this slight move!

Use the Email Me button below if you have any questions.

Cheers from the Road,

Marc & Eliana

Adventura

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:00:43 -0700

Ready to continue our journey to the southernmost city of California’s Central Coast, we changed Valentina’s oil for the fifth time on this trip and left San Luis Obispo yesterday. Valentina and our 2-person crew headed south on Highways 1 and 101 toward Ventura. Passing through the flower-seed mecca of Lompoc, we made a quick dinner stop in Buellton at Pea Soup Andersen’s for some hot, thick, fresh split pea soup.

Moving right along, we quickly breezed by a number of small towns including the Danish-influenced city of Solvang. The sun began to set, we skipped over Santa Barbara for the time-being, and soon thereafter we arrived in Ventura.

We’ve been fortunate in the fact that we have a lot of friends up and down the California coast, and Ventura is where fellow Cornellians, Natacha and Todd, make their home. I’ve kept in touch with them since vet school, and Eliana and I had the pleasure of attending their wedding celebration back in February 2007, in Washington D.C. What a great weekend that was! So, here we are visiting with them and their newborn baby, Madeline, for a few days!

Ventura is blessed with great weather and easygoing charm. Today, we set out to the revitalized downtown area, home to numerous restaurants, shops, museums, galleries, and several thrift stores. We ambled through Main Street, making several stops, first at a small archaeological museum and then at the Mission San Buenaventura. The Mission has been in existence since 1782, still functions as a church, and has a tiny museum of historical church treasures and a small and colorful courtyard. However, we both were quite disappointed and developed a sick-to-our-stomach feeling to see that posted all around the church grounds were “Yes on 8” political banners, calling for a ban on same-sex marriages in California. Although we’re not California voters, Eliana and I are both against proposition 8, and strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights -- including the right to marry -- should not be affected by their sexual orientation. This is a civil rights issue, not just a political issue. We say No to California’s Proposition 8!

Another great stop in Ventura was at the founding store for Patagonia, the outdoor equipment company. Their shop is in the former Great Pacific Iron Works building, and had a friendly staff and a killer selection of awesome (albeit expensive) outdoor gear. We met some of the employees, and on introducing ourselves, we learned that this Patagonia supports the efforts of the Ojai Raptor Rehabilitation facility and actually house a number of hawks and owls in a facility behind their store! We scored a private tour by Kim, the rehab center’s director, and checked in on 3 great horned owls, a red-tailed hawk, and a red-shouldered hawk.

Surfer’s Point, at the end of Figueroa Street, has the best waves around, is located next to the long Ventura pier, and is home to a clean and golden sandy beach. There was some excellent winter shorebird activity in the rocks and the surf. Great bird action!!!! We used our binoculars and zoom lens to scope out dozens of marbled godwits, willets, sanderlings, black turnstones, black-bellied plovers, three different species of gulls, a lone Forster’s tern and more!

In the evening, Natacha, Todd, and the two of us caught up over a mellow at-home dinner. Tomorrow we have some more car maintenance lined up (back to distributor removal for the third and final time before I go and purchase a complete new one.) Chao!

Hearst Castle and Coastline Hopping

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:00:12 -0700

Hearst Castle is an indescribably decadent dreamland castle of the late William Randolph Hearst. Located on the coast near San Simeon, the hilltop estate was our ultimate destination for the day. But first, there was some seaside exploring to be done as we hopped from town to town along the Central Coast.

Unfortunately Stephanie had to work today, but Max took the day off to be our personal tour guide and drive us up the coast in his RAV4. First stop was at Morro Bay, featuring Morro Rock, a small ex-volcano remnant of a time when this area was highly volcanically active. It was pretty fogged in, but up close we could see most of it and smell the essence of seabird guano that forms a thick layer on the rock.

A little further up, the tiny town of Harmony with population 18 was a quick interesting stop. Perhaps the smallest town we’ve visited? The town contains one street, a long abandoned house, a large dumpster, a glass blowing gallery, and a pottery shop. The historic post office was closed as was just about everything else in town. It was pretty quiet and dead as you can imagine!

Onward north, we visited Cambria, a touristy coastal artist town with pricey arts and trendy crafts, bed & breakfasts, and restaurants. Fun to stroll around and browse, but we made an effort not to buy anything! A little off the beaten path in Cambria we discovered Nitt Witt Ridge, a Dr. Seuss-style house constructed of beer cans, abalone shells, washer drums, car rims, tile, car parts, old stoves, and concrete. Since the owner Art Beal’s death in 1992, the house has been designated a historical landmark. Definitely bizarre.

On the beach near San Simeon, there’s a colony of elephant seals, a marine mammal species we’ve not yet seen! The bull males and adult females are out to sea this time of year, but there were a number of teenager and young seals lounging on the beach. Max tells us we only saw a fraction of what is there in the breeding season, but there were still plenty of pinnipeds to peruse.

Finally, it was time to explore Hearst Castle. It’s multimillionaire creator built a palace of limestone, shaded cottages, pools almost too exquisite to swim in, and fragrant gardens, complete with Renaissance furnishings.

For you south Floridians reading this, think Vizcaya times ten. It was a truly amazing place that one could only dream of living in.

When Hearst died, the castle was turned over to the State and now hosts public tours so all can appreciate its grandeur.

WOW! Maybe someday we’ll hit the lotto, but even that wouldn’t be enough to construct this kind of place. ‘Nuff said.

On the way home, we speed-nabbed a bunch of geocaches off Highway 1, and relished the central coast sunset before returning home for some Chinese take-out, another group laptop session in the kitchen, and our last night with Max, Stephanie, and the kids.

Central Coast: Avila Beach

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:00:09 -0700

Following the previous day’s strenuous bushwhacking mountain climb, we took it easy for the most part today and spent the afternoon on Avila Beach. It was a sunny, mild, and mellow day on the sand, the pier, and the seaside walk.

Max and Stephanie kept their kiddies busy on the beach while Eliana and I did the tourist thing, took photos, browsed sidewalk art, and watched a school of sea lions travel gracefully together in the water. The water is cold in the 50’s °F, and while there were some adults bodysurfing in full wet suits, booties, and neoprene hoods, kids splashed and swam undaunted in their skimpy summer bathing suits. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It wasn’t surprising that with all the sea lions and people congregating just off shore here, shark attacks occur. A 50-year old woman was killed in a shark attack off Avila Beach in August 2003 while swimming 75 yards off the beach in about 20 feet of water. There were several signs posted, but I guess most people take their chances and try not to think about it.

After the beach, we stopped by Pismo Beach State Park, which is a major overwintering grounds for the monarch butterfly. They instinctively come here in numbers ranging from 20,000 to 200,000, some traveling over a thousand miles to reach this special spot. Two populations of monarchs call the United States home. The group living east of the Rocky Mountains migrates south to spend the winter in Mexico. Those living west of the Rockies migrate to the coast of central and southern California. We witnessed the beginnings of the monarch migration season, and even though we were early, it was still pretty impressive. At first, the branches in the trees look like they have clusters of dead leaves. Taking a closer look, those aren’t leaves .... they’re butterflies!

In the evening, Stephanie cooked up a killer pasta and salad dish, and the four of us chowed down over super sweet wine and good conversation. Afterwards, we all acted like complete nerds, each of us blogging, surfing, and e-mailing on our individual laptops around the kitchen table with Smirnoff coolers and wine. A little different than sitting around on the couch to watch a movie, but hey, it suits us just fine!

Blog on little geeks, blog on!

Vamos a San Luis Obispo!

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:00:28 -0700

Eliana and I are chilling for the next few days in the San Luis Obispo area, a region encompassing five cities located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. We’re staying with my exotic vet friend Max and his wife Stephanie in Arroyo Grande. So good to see these guys again! It’s been a while since we’ve convened, and in the past it’s usually been focused around a veterinary conference. Max is a busy man with his own cat & exotic animal practice in Pismo Beach, and he and Stephanie have their hands full with two young girls -- Talia, 3 yrs, and Mariela, 8 months. Thank God we’re not doing this trip with kids! Children are great, but life sure does seem to be permanently altered once they appear. We’re definitely not ready for that anytime soon!

After getting re-acquainted with our west coast compadres, I was psyched to learn that Max took up geocaching this past March. Not by my suggestion, either! He’s logged 200 caches in the past 8 months. Combining our super geo-sense powers, we were bound to become an unstoppable caching machine this weekend! Today we would incorporate our cache-a-holic behavior into the day’s activities.

GPS in hand, our #1 geocache find of the day was discovered at the Madonna Inn, a flamboyant pink motel in San Luis Obispo (“SLO” for short) where each room is uniquely designed and themed, such as the “Caveman” room, the “Love Nest”, and “Jungle Rock”. There’s also a famed waterfall urinal in the men’s room; when flushed, a cascade of water comes rushing down the entire rock wall in front of you. It opened for business in 1958, and its one-of-a-kind appeal still keeps customers coming in for a tacky night’s stay or to enjoy a meal while seated in gaudy pink leather booths. Their dessert cakes looked outstanding!

Further down the road, Max, Eliana, and I browsed through downtown San Luis, perusing the shops along the main drag, Higuera Street. The city is centered around the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, built in 1772 to resemble a steepled New England church complemented by Spanish architecture. There, we found geocache #2 behind a historical church plaque.

A stop at the town’s Apple computer store felt like “coming home again”, as Eliana and I browsed through their amazing myriad of digital gadgets. When I die, heaven might resemble something like the Apple Store. Those of you who are Windows-PC users are missing out big time! Some tasty pizza was had at Woodstock’s Pizza Parlour for lunch, and there was a small Corvette car show in the streets that we checked out. We were quickly reminded that Volkswagens suit our price range and style a lot better!

We were simultaneously intrigued and grossed out to walk through Bubblegum Alley in search of geocache #3. Thousands, or perhaps millions, of sticky wads of already-been-chewed bubblegum stuck to the walls of the alley. And you thought that one you found under your desk at school was bad. Ewwwww...... gross. Look closely at this picture below -- a wall full of used and nasty Wrigley’s, Bubblelicious, Trident, and Bazooka.

After getting our fill of urban avenues, we headed over to Bishop Peak, a 1,559’ mountain for some serious uphill hiking. Beginning our ascent, geocache #4 was a hollowed out rubber ducky found in an old rusty abandoned upside-down car near the base of the mountain. For our geocaching friends back home in Miami, it reminded me of “The Wreck” or “Wreck and Roll”.

We forged on, and entered “Golem’s cave” for cache #5. It was pretty creepy in there, but super cool, damp, and dark. Max jumped back a few feet and yelled out loud when a long-eared bat flew an inch from his face! Like one of the ten plagues of Egypt, there were frogs in literally every crack and crevice, and salamanders too congregated in the cool damp cavern. Armed with headlamps and flashlights, we searched high and low until the elusive fifth cache was uncovered!

Continuing our journey uphill, cache #6 “Picnic Plateau” was going to be a doozy! With no clear path to access it, we hiked a poorly traveled track up the mountain, until finally the trail ran out. There in front of us, we scratched our heads as we eyeballed a steep section of trail-less mountain covered in low brush saturated with poison oak and colossal barely climbable boulders. The geocache’s description came with the following warning:

We all looked at each other, well aware of the ramifications of taking on the physical challenge that would probably involve some regret at some point ... and thought “what the &#$@ ... let’s do it!”

The three of us climbed, jumped, slid, and crawled through thorns, thickets, poisonous plants, and huge rocks, boosting and lifting each other up through the tough sections. While there was only 500 feet remaining to get to the cache, it was possibly the slowest 500 feet we’ve ever had to traverse. Eliana’s bad knee was painful and sore but she thought it would be a good idea to push it which helps with strength training and flexibility. We had to put the camera away in my backpack because the terrain was too gnarly to risk a lens breakage!

After an hour or two of agony, scratched-up arms, tears in our clothing, plant hairs stuck in our hands, tired muscles, and multiple poison oak exposures, we finally surfaced on the top of Bishop’s peak. The view was amazing! However, at the summit, we looked down and realized that all along, there was an easier and much clearer path to get to this cache, and that the insane bushwhacking was completely unnecessary. Doh! We finished off another hundred feet and the ammo box booty was there for the taking. Mission accomplished!

We got a move on the clear trail back down Bishop Peak, and rushed home as at this point we were pretty late in rejoining Stephanie for our evening dinner date. Celebrating our victory, we all went out for sushi dinner, armed with our Seafood Watch Sushi Pocket Guide for promoting sustainable seafood! It was more than amusing asking our waitress if their salmon is wild-caught vs. farmed, the shrimp imported vs. domestic, the tuna caught via longline or net, and having her run back to the kitchen to ask the chef for the details. It’s good to start putting some pressure on the restaurants to save our endangered fisheries!

Good times, good food, and great friends, and ecologically sustainable fun. What more could you ask for?

How’s about this poison oak rash to go away?

Montaña de Oro & Los Osos

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:00:17 -0700

We woke up in the campground of Montaña de Oro State Park near the central California coast town of Los Osos, California. The temperatures over night were mild and we slept well in the pop-top. A little further south and we may not need sleeping bags any more -- hopefully we can go back to sheets and a comforter soon? Mummy bags are starting to feel a bit restrictive these days.

I woke up first, as usual, and set out for the morning bladder emptying. Although I don’t usually write about bathroom conditions, the outhouse in this park was the most clean, odor-free, aseptic bathroom we’ve experienced on the entire trip. Well aseptic might be going a little too far, but it was respectable. Some of the ones we’ve encountered are downright repulsive. In most cases its hold your nose, don’t look down, and often times you’re better off just going in the woods!

Montaña de Oro, which translates to “mountain of gold”, features rugged cliffs, secluded sandy beaches, tide pools, coastal plains, and tide pools. The park’s name comes from the golden wildflowers (California poppy) that bloom in spring; we were still able to spot a few in bloom even though it wasn’t the season for them.

The two of us hiked the bluff trail which overlooked high marine terraces and at one point, brought us down to the shale-covered shore. The weather was full sun and warm, ahhhhhh, just perfect!

Bird highlights included black oystercatchers, as well as long-billed curlew and whimbrels posed right next to each other so you could clearly see the differences in these two similar-looking shorebirds. Love the long decurved bill!

After a good hike, we drove out of the park and just happened to be in the town of Los Osos. If you’re a Westfalia-equipped Volkswagen owner, you would of course know that Los Osos is the home of GoWesty!, a company specializing in the parts, sales, and service of Buses, Vanagons, and Eurovans equipped for camping. The same company whose 2009 calendar contest we won a few weeks ago, and who we bought a few thousand bucks worth of products from to complete Valentina’s restoration earlier this year. We had to make a stop at their shop!

We were psyched to met Christina, Taylor, and Nate of the GoWesty team. Nate gave us a tour around the facility, and we bought a couple of parts including a locking gas cap and a city water hookup box. We did ask about the replacement distributor we needed, but they didn’t have any in stock. GoWesty mostly caters to Vanagons and Eurovans; Buses are a rare breed there. We still love ‘em, anyway.

Grabbing some lunch around the corner, we indulged in real monster burgers and fries at Sylvester’s. Damn, those were some good burgers. I ordered a “California burger” which was totally stuffed with avocado. Eliana’s was a black bean burger, and she raved about it! We didn’t attempt their 5-pound burger eating contest, though.

Continuing our trend of visiting with friends around the country, we headed to the San Luis Obispo/Pismo Beach area to begin an extended weekend stay with exotic super-vet Max and his wife Stephanie. Max and I both started in the trenches of exotic practice around the same time. We’ve always been close colleagues, but I’m excited to put veterinary medicine aside and spend some quality friend-time with him and his family. It’s great having friends around the world!

Addendum: Last week while in San Francisco’s East Bay area, we found a wallet on the street adjacent to a gas station in Danville. We were able to track down the wallet’s owner the same day using his local country club membership card, and he came by Chris’s house to pick it up. In person, he didn’t really seem all that appreciative. Then, just today, we were made aware of this excerpt in the Danville newspaper:

Refreshing story
Dear Editor:
Danville is a "Great Place" to live. When you hear about all the bad things going on in this world, I just wanted to share a refreshing story that happened to me last week. At a local gas station, I dropped my wallet when filling up my car with gas. About an hour later, I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize on my cell phone. The voice at the other end said that he had found my wallet and was calling me to return it. I was elated and relieved to receive this wonderful phone call. Losing all your credit cards, driver's license and other important "stuff" that is in your wallet is a frightening thought in this "wacky" world that we live. This is a testament to the high quality of people that live in our great town.
Thank you to this "Angel" that returned my wallet. It restores my belief that there are many great and honest people in this world. Unfortunately, you don't hear enough about them.
Mike L. Mc Colgan, Danville

Big Sur

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:00:07 -0700

The entire 90 mile coastal stretch of Highway 1 below Monterey is Big Sur, bordered on the south by San Simeon and on the north by Carmel. The winding highways and tremendous ocean views of this highway make a for spectacular driving experience, perhaps even more so than the northern California coastline. We stopped for a number of state parks, beaches, scenic vistas, and roadside geocaches along the way. It was utterly breathtaking! The aquamarine water, pounding surf, and steep cliffs are amazing .... everyone should do this drive at least once in their lives! Valentina handled it just fine, even though our distributor is giving us problems again ... but it would be ultra sweet in a fast and road-responsive sports car with the top down and the wind in your hair. We opened up our V-Dub-style front vent windows for some serious fresh air ventilation and exchanged our denim jeans for shorts for the first time in the past three months. The weather is seriously warming up again as we go south!

The McWay waterfall trail in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, holds the only waterfall that spills directly into the great Pacific, an elegant, 80 ft. plume feeding a limitless ocean. The beaches in this particular park are closed to public access so that they remained unspoiled and are only to be appreciated from afar.

We attempted some hiking at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, but it was closed due to post-fire re-construction. Of course, we made a few geocache stops along the way as usual ... a noteworthy cache was hidden next to an albino redwood tree, one of only a handful of known albino redwoods in the world! The leaves lack chlorophyll, so it never turns green. Interesting genetics!

About 60 miles into our picturesque cruising through the Big Sur stretch of Highway 1, we saw the skies darkening until we eventually came upon this:

The huge smoky plume was a raging wildfire in the forests, and as we got closer and closer the air thickened and eventually the only road through the area was cordoned off due to a fire-induced rockslide. Hmmmm... according to the firefighters our only option was to drive all the way back to Monterey and take the boring inland Route 101 south. We slowly made our way back north up the coast, stopping for memory-cards-full of scenic photographs and gorgeous beach and dune walks on the way.

Up and around through Monterey, east to Salinas, and proceeding southeast down 101, we spent a few hours driving until we reached the coast again in the small town of Los Osos. We camped at Montaña de Oro State Park, with several primitive campsites in a secluded area of the Central Coast. It was dark when we arrived (with no pillows, as we left them at our CS host’s house), and we celebrated our arrival with some chilled Gamay Rouge wine from Sonoma. A toast to low gas prices -- we paid $2.95 a gallon today which was our lowest rate in the last five months of traveling. Cheers!

Point Lobos & The 17-Mile Drive

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:38:40 -0700

Just south of Monterey near the town of Carmel, Point Lobos State Reserve is an extraordinary 550-acre wildlife sanctuary situated along the California coast. A number of hiking trails wander past moss-draped trees and precipitous bluffs that fall off to the blue ocean water below. The waters around Point Lobos contain extensive kelp forests and abundant plant and animal life, moving up the food chain to seabirds, shorebirds, and large marine mammals. It’s known to some as “the greatest meeting of land and water in the world.”

We were smart to bring binoculars, as there were plenty of sea otters and sea lions cavorting in the surf, and a healthy variety of birds perched in the trees, feeding on the rocky shore, and diving in the water. Gotta love those cute black oystercatchers!

We probably hiked just about every trail in the park, and even though most of the geocaches around here were disabled, we still managed to find a few as we progressed through the reserve. The area is also very popular with divers, thanks to the rich marine life in the water -- just make sure to have a wetsuit, because the waters are a chilly 55-degrees!

After a half day at Point Lobos, we drove back up to Monterey for a tasty Thai lunch, and then over the the ritzy area of Pebble Beach. A 17-mile scenic drive meanders along the coast from Pacific Grove through Pebble Beach and the forests around Carmel. Once owned by the Del Monte Properties, Pebble Beach has become the playground of the fabulously well-to-do. Its enormous, manicured golf courses creep up almost to the shore's edge in bizarre contrast to the dramatically jagged cliffs and turbulent surf. The drive is rolling, looping, and often spectacular. We were able to bypass the hefty $10 entrance fee to 17-Mile Drive by telling the guard at the gate that we were off to riding lessons at the Equestrian Center. Hehehe!

After some evening blogging at the Monterey Public Library, we hooked up with David and Ashley at the Brittania Arms pub to shoot the breeze over some less-than-healthy bar food and beer. We stayed at their pad one last night, this time on the better-inflated air mattress, before continuing south down the coast.

Monterey Bay with The Murr

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:00:17 -0700

The largest of Monterey’s attractions, the Monterey Bay Aquarium takes full advantage of the adjacent marine ecosystem to become a first rate aquatic zoological institution. Not only that, but the aquarium’s veterinarian, Dr. Mike “The Murr” Murray, is an amazingly warm and likable guy that we knew we had to stop by and say hi to. From Santa Cruz, we arrived early on Cannery Row in Monterey and began our day at the aquarium’s opening time, meeting Mike downstairs at the entrance who was eager to take us around and show us the creatures and exhibits from behind the scenes.

After a brief meeting with an ocean sunfish and a hospitalized ray in the quarantine area, we toured the control room where they monitor all the aquarium parameters from a super computer. The plumbing in a place like this is mind-boggling; the crowds never get the chance to appreciate all the filters, pipes, pumps, and heaters that keep the life-supporting water moving and clean. In the late morning, we sat in on a hands-on health treatment for several dorado (a.k.a. mahi-mahi, or dolphin fish), who were rounded up in a large pool by wet-suit clad fish cowboys. The fish were removed out of their saltwater holding tank with hydraulically-rigged fish stretchers and immersed in freshwater baths for 5 minutes each to reduce their load of external parasites.

After that, we got up close and personal with a goofy albatross that’s used as an education animal. Awesome!

From there, we toured the floor of the aquarium where Murr gave us the inside scoop on many of the exhibits. The living kelp forest, housed in a two-story aquarium where ocean waves are simulated with a gigantic water plunger, made us feel like we were literally under the sea. Right around the corner, one of the world’s largest aquarium windows opens up to an enormous marine habitat containing sharks, giant ocean sunfish, and schools of blue and yellowfin tuna in a million gallons of water. Jellyfish gracefully undulate with their long delicate tentacles in several uniquely shaped aquariums. Eliana hand-fed an octopus some shrimp and the 8-legged beast used its great strength to pull her arm into its habitat! When it was time for Mike to carry on his veterinary duties, he left us watching the sea otters from above during feeding time, which was an amusing action-packed treat as they played and frolicked in their pool. Otters love to crunch on ice cubes, which they use as environmental enrichment.

One our our important take home lessons for the day was that fishing practices worldwide are damaging our oceans -- depleting fish populations, destroying habitats and polluting the water. Did you know that for each pound of shrimp caught in a trawl net, two to ten pounds of other marine life are caught, killed, and discarded overboard as bycatch? What about fish farming -- it’s not always the best practice for certain types of seafood. Which fish should you avoid eating altogether due to overfishing of unsustainable populations? Monterey Bay Aquarium has a free pocket seafood guide that can you get and carry with you to make an educated decision on what to buy when you eat seafood in a restaurant or from the supermarket. We use it all the time, and it takes everyone to make a difference. Get the Seafood Watch Guide free!

We explored the aquarium for a few more hours on our own before making it outside to walk the streets of Cannery Row. Lying along the waterfront, Cannery Row was once home to a booming sardine industry that failed when the fishery collapsed in the mid 1950’s. For years after, the avenue existed as a dilapidated street crammed with the languishing sardine-packing plants, but has since been converted into tourist-packed mini-malls, restaurants, and hotels.

Later in the evening, we met up with our 12th couch surfing hosts of the trip, David and Ashley, who have a small one bedroom apartment in downtown Monterey. David’s not just a couch surfer, but also a real surfer, and Ashley’s a vet tech with a yellow lab and a kitten that looked just like my cat, Ariel! We chatted for a while, then crashed on an under-inflated air mattress in the center of their living room and slept to the sounds of barking sea lions that could be heard from the waterfront.

Santa Cruz

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:00:04 -0700

Santa Cruz offers a mix of Southern California’s surf culture and Northern California’s laid-back vibe. Friendly and unpretentious, the city offers up a mix of sculpted surfers, aging hippies, and free-thinking students. We took a long morning at couchsurfer Tim’s house to catch up on blogging, laundry, and showers. By early afternoon we fired up Valentina and “cruzzed” to the downtown streets.

Pacific Avenue, the main avenue downtown, teems with independent bookstores, cool bars, trendy cafes, and pricey boutiques. We strolled up and down the streets and worked up an appetite browsing through the shops. Quelling our hunger, Eliana slurped up a vegetarian minestrone soup while I skarfed down a chicken pesto sandwich at Zoccoli’s deli. Additionally, to facilitate consumption of the few bottles of Oregon and Sonoma wine stored in the Bus, we picked up two wine glasses at the thrift store for 75 cents each. Eliana’s learning that a good wine cannot be appreciated from plastic cups!

Moseying on, we discovered the Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk. The beach was broad, reasonably clean, and packed with cut-up volleyball players. The boardwalk is a tacky three-block strip of amusement park rides, shooting galleries, arcades, and carnival-style food vendors. The entire thing was completely off-season dead though! It reminded me of the scene where Tom Hanks visits the fortune-telling “Zoltar” in the 1988 movie, Big. The place was empty and deserted, except for the arcade which was still open. There I am, strolling past the avenue of 80’s vintage arcade games and reminiscing. Q-bert, Marble Madness, Pac-man, Asteroids, Galaga, Punch-out, Centipede ... those were the good old days where video games were simple and there weren’t 15 different buttons to press!

We really wanted to ride the Giant Dipper, a 1924 wooden roller coaster, where Dirty Harry met his enemy in 1983’s Sudden Impact. Instead, we just looked up and imagined the creaky ride as it might have sounded and felt. The whole place was like a throwback to 50’s beach culture. Cowabunga dude!

Jutting off the Santa Cruz beach stands the longest car-accessible pier on the west coast, where seafood restaurants and souvenir shops tried to distract us from the expansive views of the ocean. Sea lions hung out on rafters beneath the end of the pier, and their incessant barking could be heard for miles away.

Several gulls graced the railings of the pier, and as I scanned the row of birds with eagle-sharp eyes, I noticed one particular Western Gull was wearing a metal Fish & Wildlife leg band! Its other leg actually happened to be missing, maybe chomped off by a shark? We got very close to the bird, and after 30 minutes or so of circling its one banded leg, and photographing the band from multiple angles, we could actually make out the 9 engraved numbers using the zoom function on our Nikon camera! Tagged birds can be reported to the Dept. of the Interior, provide researchers with valuable data, and learn something about the animal you’ve found. In return for reporting a band, the USFWS issues interesting information on the bird to the person submitting the band numbers. We’ll submit our data online at the Bird Banding Lab website here tomorrow. Cool!

That wasn’t the only gull story of the afternoon. At the end of the pier, Eliana spotted a different gull, a juvenile, whose legs were entangled in monofilament fishing line and it couldn’t walk too well. Poor thing! With a little creativity and some oyster crackers we finagled out of a nearby seafood restaurant, we enticed the gull with food into the women’s restroom! I cornered the bird (after checking for legs under the stalls!) and grabbed him up using Eliana’s fleece jacket. Eliana untangled its legs and removed the fishing line, and we were emergency wildlife vet heroes for the day. Where’s Animal Planet to shoot some real life video footage? Now if only someone could wash Eliana’s stinky jacket?

Ending the day, the sun set over the pier and we met up with our CS host Tim at a local pub featuring 99 different beers. The three of us guzzled down some tasty microbrews and swapped travel stories. Tim and his wife Jen spent an awesome six months traveling through Indo-Australia and Southeast Asia, and now they’re about to have twins. Good thing they got the traveling out of their system before conceiving in Thailand!

LOOSE MONOFILAMENT FISHING LINE CAN INJURE OR KILL WILDLIFE AND CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE TO BOATS. Never discard fishing line into the ocean. Please dispose of it properly in a recycling container or trash bin where birds and other wildlife can’t get at it. Thanks.